White sugar and brown sugar: which one is sweeter? (substance, substitute, calories)

[Flamboyante]

Does anyone know for sure?

I looked all over on the internet, read different answers, nobody seems to know exactly.

I'm trying to use brown sugar to bake Madeleines and I want to know if it works the same as white sugar.

Thanks!

[hellpaso]

Never thought about it, lol! Subjectively, I taste white sugar as sweeter & not as complex. It'll be interesting to see if someone comes up with some definitive facts on this.

[AmazinGracie]

I would think brown sugar would be sweeter (and richer) as it is white sugar with molasses added to it. Of course, this is just my opinion.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Substitute 1 for 1 and expect the taste and texture to be a lot different

[OpenD]

White sugar has 16 calories per teaspoon, brown sugar has 11. For the same quantities, white sugar contains more actual sugar and hence more sweetness.

[Nanny Goat]

White is sweeter. I've interchanged in recipes. If it calls for 1/2 cup of brown, I don't need as much white.

[kharing]

Originally Posted by Flamboyante

Does anyone know for sure?

I looked all over on the internet, read different answers, nobody seems to know exactly.

I'm trying to use brown sugar to bake Madeleines and I want to know if it works the same as white sugar.

Thanks!

My thought is that the brown sugar will keep them from rising. White is sweeter, lighter. Brown sugar has a heavy, smoky taste.

A great compromise would be to use light brown sugar. Best of both worlds!

[Happy in Wyoming]

Sweetness is measured on the Brix Scale using sucrose as a standard with a Brix Number of 1. If something is said to be 12 times sweeter than sugar it would have a Brix Number of 12. But when we are comparing two samples of the same substance we don't need to worry about that. All we need to know is the quantity of sugar we're adding.

Originally Posted by OpenD

White sugar has 16 calories per teaspoon, brown sugar has 11. For the same quantities, white sugar contains more actual sugar and hence more sweetness.

Since we measure by volume in this country we can simply use the standards supplied. If brown sugar has 11 calories per tsp and white sugar has 16 calories then white sugar is 16/11 sweeter than brown. This would only apply to the stated sample and doesn't account for the difference between light and dark brown sugar but we can say that the light brown is sweeter because the refinery adds less molasses leaving a higher percentage of sucrose. Brown sugar is simply refined white sugar with molasses added.

It is possible to measure the sweetness. Different percentage of sucrose don't have just different levels of sweetness; they have different refractive indices. Therefore, just take the sample amounts of sugar and dissolve them in the same quantity of distilled water. Take a reading with a refractometer, the kind you use to measure sweetness in fruits, beer, wine, etc.

Here's an inexpensive one. But please note that it's designed to measure only sugar, not artificial sweeteners as the highest Brix number it measures is 32. Artificial sweeteners may have much higher numbers.

Amazon.com: Refractometer RF15 with Automatic Temperature Compensation (0-32 Brix): Kitchen & Dining

[dens]

White is most definitely sweeter. Nothing scuentific to base it on other than I need more teaspoons in my tea when using brown.

[i35vagabond]

I can eat brown sugar right out of the bag. I cannot do the same with white sugar.